The BBC Music Magazine Awards are the biggest annual celebration of the best recordings from the world of classical music, and you can join us on the evening for only £20 a ticket.

The evening takes place at London’s Kings Place on Wednesday 10 April 2019 and begins with a champagne reception, where you’ll have the chance to meet the magazine’s editorial team, music industry professionals, artists and celebrities.

You’ll then move into Kings Place’s main hall for the awards ceremony, which will feature performances by award-winning artists from across the world. The Awards will be hosted by editor Oliver Condy, with a star-studded line-up of guest presenters. Previous guests have included Simon Callow, Gok Wan, Ed Balls and Anneka Rice.

The nominations for the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards have now been revealed, with 21 of the best classical recordings from over the past year chosen by an expert jury.

The discs were selected from the 200 recordings awarded five stars by our critics in the last 12 months. Voting is now open to the public, so you can choose your favourite recordings from seven categories: Orchestral, Instrumental, Chamber, Choral, Vocal, Opera and Concerto.

There were a huge number of Debussy recordings released in 2018 in celebration of the composer’s centenary, and the best of these are reflected in this year’s Awards shortlist. In the Instrumental category, Alexander Melnikov is nominated with his recordings of Book 2 of Debussy’s Préludes and the much-loved La Mer, in which Melnikov is joined by Olga Pashchenko. Melnikov appears again playing Debussy in the Chamber category, alongside other leading musicians including Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras in a selection of late works by the French composer.

Contemporary composer John Adams also appears in two categories in this year’s Awards: he conducts his thrilling Doctor Atomic in the Opera category, and his Naïve and Sentimental Music and Absolute Jest are performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Peter Oundjian in the Orchestral category.

Old classics have been given new life in several of this year’s Awards nominations, including new recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony by MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis, and Mahler’s First Symphony by the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra under Adám Fischer.

New discoveries include Michael Collins’s recordings of Crusell’s fabulous clarinet concertos and a set of recordings of ‘Moralizing Songs in the Middle Ages’ from the Sollazzo ensemble in the Choral category.

Rising stars of the classical music world are heralded in this year’s Awards, with 25-year-old composer Owain Park’s choral works performed by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge in the Choral category and 26-year-old guitarist Sean Shibe’s disc SoftLOUD nominated in the Instrumental category, following his entry in the same category last year with his debut album.

Familiar faces in the BBC Music Magazine Awards this year include previous winners Mark Elder, who conducts Rossini’s Semiramide in the Opera category, and the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh, who are nominated in the Choral category with their A Rose Magnificat album.

'Drawing up our shortlist has been, like every year, a huge challenge', says BBC Music Magazine editor Oliver Condy. 'The quality of recordings in all genres throughout 2018 was remarkable. But now the power is in the hands of the music-loving public, and I'm excited to find out who they choose as the ultimate winners!'

In addition to the shortlisted recordings, there are four jury awards – Premiere Recording, Newcomer of the Year, DVD of the Year and Recording of the Year – all of which will be announced at the awards ceremony on 10 April.

The full list of nominees can be seen below, and the public vote is now open at www.classical-music.com/awards. You can also listen to audio clips from all the nominated discs here.

Voting closes on Tuesday 19 February 2019, and the winners will be announced at a ceremony at London’s Kings Place on Wednesday 10 April. For full details of the nominees and how to vote, go to our Awards page here.

The best recording

To perform The Rite of Spring with any degree of conviction or accuracy demands total dedication. Of the many recordings available, most of the leading versions can claim at least that.

However, the score for The Rite is too eventful for any one record to capture everything that’s going on. To gain a pretty comprehensive understanding of what The Rite of Spring really does sound like, it’s worth trying one choice, living with it for sixth months or so and then having a change.

That top choice, at least for the moment, is the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under Péter Ëotvös. Right from the expressive bassoon playing at the outset, this recording has imagination, it charts the various climaxes with energy but never a hint of vulgarity, and Ëotvös avoids what Stravinsky labelled self-glorification… his is the thoughtful, guiding approach of a genuinely creative mind.

Notice how he traces the architecture of the ‘Dance of the Earth’ that closes Part I, plus the dark ominous thumping of bassoons, timpani and basses in the passage immediately before it, as the sage blesses the earth – Ëotvös keeps the heat in while letting us hear virtually everything. There is also considerable sensitivity in the Pagan Night that opens Part II while, in the next episode where the young girls mark a circle where the glorified one will dance, the line is always kept mobile and fluid.

Above all, though, Ëotvös never lets us forget that The Rite of Spring is a ballet – but with a difference: this is dirty dancing.

Three more great recordings

Kirov Orchestra/Valery Gergiev Philips 468 0352

Valery Gergiev is the conductor to choose if it’s raw primitivism you’re after and blow the detail. There’s plenty of red mist, and at times you can almost smell the sweat and tribal greasepaint, but it’s also unkempt in places and not for all moods.

Even after almost 50 years, Igor Markevitch and the Philharmonia orchestra hit the spot, burning from the inside and sounding genuinely live. The downside, though, is the recorded sound which is showing its age just a little.

This week's free download is the third movement from Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A, K581. It is performed by the Carducci Quartet with clarinettist Julian Bliss and recorded for Signum Records.

This is Mozart's only completed clarinet quintet and was written for the clarinettist Anton Stadler, who Mozart also wrote his Clarinet Concerto for. It was written at the end of Mozart's life, in 1789.

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Classical music consumption in 2018 increased by more than a tenth on the previous year, as stated by the BPI in new figures released this week. Sales and streams of classical music have grown by 10 per cent in the past year, outperforming the overall 5.7 per cent rise in UK music consumption as a whole.

The rise in classical music consumption was primarily driven by a 6.9 per cent increase in the sales of CDs, which account for nearly 60 per cent of the UK’s classical music. Streaming now accounts for 25.2 per cent of classical music consumption, which is an increase on previous years but is still lagging behind other musical genres. The BPI has suggested that this could be as a result of the difficulties in search functions on streaming platforms.

The combined sales of the top-30 albums increased by 69 per cent on 2017, showcasing the wide-reaching success of albums including Andrea Bocelli’s Si and In Harmony by Aled Jones and Russell Watson, which were the two best-selling classical recordings this year.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s appearance at the Royal Wedding helped put classical music on a wider stage, with his debut album Inspiration reaching the top of the classical charts for 14 weeks.

Ludovico Einaudi was the most popular classical artist on streaming platforms, accounting for 8.6 per cent of all classical music streams. This was closely followed by a handful of film music composers.

Beethoven’s sub-title for the opening movement of his Sixth Symphony must have been far from the thoughts of those Viennese citizens who had braved the winter weather on 22 December 1808 to attend a mammoth all-Beethoven concert in the Theatre an der Wien.

His warmest symphony was first heard in joyless conditions as the theatre’s heating had broken down. Whereas the Fifth, also premiered that day, epitomises the defiant side of Beethoven’s personality, the Sixth is its antithesis, both an expression of his love of Nature and a hymn of thanksgiving.

Musical imitations of rural life include the drone of a bagpipe, a babbling brook, the unlikely trio of nightingale, quail and cuckoo, a rustic dance, a summer thunderstorm and the carolling of a shepherd’s pipe.

The best recording

Otto Klemperer’s radiant recording of the Pastoral Symphony may be over 50 years old, but once the taste for it has been acquired, it’s addictive.

Yes, it has its idiosyncrasies. Take, for instance, his view of the Scherzo – his insistence that it’s a Ländler, a heavy footed Austrian dance, is possibly inherited from his mentor Gustav Mahler, who it is documented conducted this movement at a similarly easy-going tempo.

Never intended as fleet-footed Arcadians, Beethoven’s merrymaking peasants, as portrayed by Klemperer, even more resemble those grotesques found in the paintings of Flemish artist Pieter Breughel. But Klemperer’s tempo for the Allegro ma non troppo first movement strikes one as ideal, measured but purposeful.

In the Andante, the water in the brook flows naturally and the birdsong cadenza shows off the Philharmonia’s woodwind trio to charming effect. Taken at a quickish tempo, the Shepherd’s Hymn is a real Ode to Joy, both euphoric and strong.

There is no noticeable slowing for the Coda, no nostalgic glancing back; the symphony’s spell is finally broken with a peremptory ‘Amen’ from full orchestra. Klemperer, as always, divides his violins left and right, opening up the texture, and the 1957 stereo recording sounds better than it has any right to.

Three more great recordings

Until the 1980s, Beethoven symphony performance was largely the preserve of the standard symphony orchestra. Next up was period instrument performance, removing excess varnish but sometimes risking damage to original paintwork.

But now hear what the 25 players of Musica Viva Moscow – a chamber-sized orchestra playing on modern instruments – can do. Suffice to say, they are a class act. The opening chord is struck rather than gently insinuated: this Pastoral is unique in being kick-started.

In the Thunderstorm of the fourth movement, cellist conductor Alexander Rudin keeps his brass and timpani in check – thus delivering more of a summer shower than an elemental deluge.

Throughout, there are countless wayside details to stop and admire, making this live, imaginative and finely recorded Pastoral, complete with violins divided either side of the orchestra, a hugely enjoyable one.

Should the Pastoral Symphony be thrilling? This one certainly is. The sound that this young chamber orchestra produces is dazzling. With fresh, incisive string tone, wonderfully bucolic horns in the Scherzo, vibrant woodwind (the ravishing oboe playing in particular is deserving of a special mention), Giovanni Antonini’s Pastoral is a joy from start to finish.

For those attuned to the Old School of Beethoven Conducting, exemplified by the likes of Bruno Walter or Karl Böhm, Antonini’s tempo for the first movement may sound merely breathless; however, in context and on repeated hearing, it makes perfect sense.

Even without antiphonal violins, this beautifully recorded disc must feature on any shortlist.

Like Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Warner Classics, 1992), Paavo Järvi opts for a medium-size ensemble playing on modern instruments. Interpretatively, they are quite similar and both can be warmly recommended, but Järvi’s decision to divide his Bremen Chamber Philharmonic violins ultimately gets him my vote of the two.

In addition, he offers beautifully judged tempos, transparent orchestral textures and a real sense of engagement with the score. This Pastoral really does seem to be lit from within.

Järvi’s marvellously played and recorded account, free of any interpretative quirks, is true both to the letter and spirit of Beethoven – though, ultimately, no single recording can tell us absolutely everything about this inexhaustible score.

And one to avoid

Herbert von Karajan made several recordings of the Pastoral. The earliest and best was in mono with the Philharmonia Orchestra in the 1950s – a beautifully played, invigorating performance with plenty of fresh air in its lungs.

However, his 1970s digital re-make is a dull run-through with a jumbo-size Berlin Philharmonic machine on autopilot. If you crave a BPO Pastoral, it must be André Cluytens’s wonderful 1960 recording.